Laburnum anagyroides - Common laburnum seeds

Laburnum anagyroides, the Laburnum, brings to the garden long clusters of golden-yellow flowers that cascade like a shower of light at the heart of spring. Growing from seed allows you to produce several robust plants yourself, well-rooted and perfectly adapted to the garden, at a very modest cost. The trade-off is time: seedlings take on average 3 to 5 years to flower, and around ten years to reach an ornamental tree stature. It is an excellent solution for creating an informal hedge or a small grove.

This species belongs to the Fabaceae family. Its common names are Laburnum, Golden Chain, Common Laburnum, or “Golden Rain”. Its accepted botanical name is Laburnum anagyroides, with several historical synonyms such as Cytisus laburnum, Laburnum vulgare, Genista laburnum or Cytisus alschingeri. This Laburnum is native to the mountainous regions of central and southern Europe, from southern France to the Balkans. There, it grows on sunny slopes, at the edges of open forests, on stony, calcareous soils.
It is a large shrub or small deciduous tree reaching 6 to 8m in height and 4 to 6m in spread at maturity. At 10 years, its dimensions reach 4 to 5m tall and 3 to 4m wide, depending on soil quality. Its habit is naturally bushy. The shrub can be trained to a single trunk, with a broad, slightly spreading crown that bends under the weight of the flowering clusters. Growth is rapid, around 50 to 80cm per year in the early years.
The deciduous leaves are trifoliate: each one is formed of three oval, 2 to 5cm long, mid-green leaflets, smooth above and slightly hairy on the underside. They appear after flowering. In spring, on the current year's shoots, long, dense, pendulous clusters of 15 to 30cm form, adorned with small, bright yellow butterfly-like flowers. Depending on conditions, they are lightly fragrant to strongly scented and very nectar-rich. This flowering occurs between May and early June. It is followed by elongated, 5 to 8cm long pods, brownish at maturity, containing several highly toxic black seeds.
The fairly deep root system bears nodosities housing nitrogen-fixing bacteria, which allows the tree to thrive in poor soils. The hard and very dense wood takes on a dark brown to near-black hue with age, earning it the nickname “false ebony”. It has long been prized for turning, making small objects, and even bows or instruments. All parts of the plant, especially the seeds and pods, are highly toxic if ingested.

In the garden, use Golden Chain as a small ornamental tree at the centre of a large border or to mark an entrance. In a grove or informal hedge, it will accompany shrubs as undemanding as itself: the orange Pride of India Koelreuteria paniculata ‘Coral Sun’, sea buckthorn Hippophae rhamnoides ‘Friesdorfer Orange’, Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’ and the Russian olive, Elaeagnus angustifolia. All these large shrubs tolerate both calcareous soil and drought.